May & June Photodump

Well I see that a monthly update is too much for me to handle! So go grab a cup of coffee and get comfy... I have a lot to share and a lot to say :) And I like hearing myself talk (and I'm the quiet one of the family! haha!).... so here we go!!

5/7/16 Weekend: Ross & I have the best group of friends! In May, they planned a winery weekend at the Finger Lakes, and it was our first time being able to go (yay for being closer to home!). So this was also our first weekend away from Claire. The trip was lovely. We rented a beautiful house with our friends with lake views, wined and dined for 3 straight days, and left with our hearts filled! And I only cried once from missing my baby girl.

Here, I let Claire pick out a new toy for the upcoming roadtrip! (She only had to drive half as far, as we met my parents in NY to watch her.) It's a big deal when I buy her a new toy as I'm very set on the 'minimalist' mindset. But a roadtrip called for a new toy and she loved it :)

Caption: 'See mom... I buy Claire SOME new toys!' I couldn't pass up a cute owl from the one winery.

Ross & I at Wagners Winery & Brewery. Ross loved having the option of beer or wine. He goes for beer. I go for wine. We are both happy campers.

A picture of the whole group!

Ross & I have perfected feeding Claire during long roadtrips! One of us will jump in the backseat to feed her a bottle while the other continues driving.... it's a win-win because she's buckled in and happy eating, and the other person is buckled in the middle seat, and we don't have to take the time to stop. This is the first time for Ross to take over feeding duties in the car (and he dozed off!) so I had to take a pic! ha!

5/17/16: Sometimes the simplest toys are the best toys!!
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5/18/16: This particular night, Claire was hilarious. She was purposely putting the burp cloth on her face... I think it was her game of hide-n-seek. And she kept giggling over and over. We finally got one round on camera!!
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5/22/16: Ross, Claire & I went to check out this place here in Cleveland called the Holden Arboretum. They have a canvas walk through the trees and a tower that you climb to see out over the trees. It was so much fun!! And we had a gorgeous day for it. I carried Claire in the back-pack which she loves. Afterwards, we had a nice picnic for lunch then headed home :)

Goofball likes eating the carrier!

Family selfie!!

Panoramic Views!! And it's worth mentioning the I carried her up all 202 stairs!!! Ross carried her down. Safe to say I was huffing and puffing when we finally reached the top!

She loved playing with an empty water bottle during our picnic... again, the simplest toys are the best toys!

5/23/16: Claire and I love going to our beach, Lake Erie. Did I mention already it's 5 minutes from our house! haha  It's not the nicest beach or the 'bluest' water... but it's our beach and we love it! And I'm not even a beach person. Make me drive 8 hours to get to the Atlantic... no way! 5 minutes, sure!! I love our town here in Bay Village!!

5/26/16: 6-month checkup, all is well! And she was such a champ with the shots this time! I can't get over how much I love these headbands... headbands all the time :)

5/28/16 Memorial Day weekend: Here was another big event.... our first time camping this season and first time camping with Claire!! Boy, it was work! But I still won't give up camping no matter how much work it is! I love it too much and it brings me too much peace. Hopefully Claire eventually enjoys it as much as Ross & I do! Unfortunately, this time, we got some rain and a TON of mud... so remind me next time to bring tennis shoes or rain boots! whoops.

Claire's wearing my hoodie while we were stranded under our canopy in the pouring rain. She didn't mind and eventually fell asleep in it!

She loved the tent too. She eventually slept peacefully at night by stealing my sleeping bag. *sigh*

Family selfie...

Girl loves selfies. hahahaha....

Aunt Ang and Aunt Kris loved spending time with Claire too!...

Tent Selfie...

 

And finally, a picture of the whole gang before we all departed! (minus Dakota. She hates camping and had had enough!  She was sitting by the car waiting to go!)

Ross took the next day off too to have an extra long holiday weekend so we explored Cleveland a bit. Can you guess whose drink belongs to who?!

6/2/16: Another beach day! And another selfie. She cracks me up!!!! This was our first and only pic of the day...we're getting too good at this!

6/3/16: She discovered her tongue! ha!

This was also an exciting day b/c I received my Welcome Kit for my new job. I'm officially a contractor with eGroup for Southern Nuclear Company!! I sent this selfie to a few of my coworkers who also work through eGroup and said we could now be 'TWINSIES!' hehe

So basically, I got my old job back as a Project Analyst but as a contractor since I live out of state. I'm SO happy to be back working full-time and I think Claire's happy being back in the home daycare she was at previously with a few other kids. It's good for both of us. I'm regaining my sanity and independence and she's learning how to make friends :)

6/9/16: The tough life of shopping. She fell asleep like this in her stroller.

 6/10/16: Another giggling video... I can't resist!!!
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6/11/16: Another beach day. This time she discovered sand!
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6/18/16 Weekend: Last weekend, I headed home to Pittsburgh to celebrate one of my best friend's, Steph, on her upcoming wedding! It was her bridal shower and bachelorette party all rolled into one weekend! Everything went off without a hitch and we had a blast!!

Ross & Claire stayed behind for the weekend, so he ended up spending his first Father's Day watching Claire all by himself. I heard that they had a really good weekend though!.. that may or may not have had something to do with also seeing her grandma (Ross' mom) and her uncle (Ross' brother) for the weekend! I'm sure she was spoiled with attention!!!

Back to the beginning of the day, Steph's fiance asked for one gift... a chainsaw. And he was ecstatic! priceless!

 

Group shot at the shower!

Steph and her coconut rum punch! Yum!! We ended up having a Makeup-Tutorial party, dinner catered by Mad Mex, then out on the town to a club to dance!

One more shot before our night out! Let me remind you that we only went OUT at 9:30pm... a time when most of us are in bed! So bets were talked about whether or not we would make it out and not fall asleep beforehand. Answer? We are still young! The evening was a blast and we were up until 3am!! It only took me 5 days to recover from the sleep I lost....

So worth it!!

At the club, I'm sad to report that it's evident that I'm a MOM. Every time I saw a girl dressed scandalously, I cried and prayed that Claire would never wear such a thing. "Put some clothes on!" or "Don't dance like that!" I would yell. Oh, these poor poor girls. Have some respect for yourselves. ....What happened to me?!!! I never asked for a daughter and look what it's become of me!!

At the club!... (what an *awesome* pic of Kris & I, ha!)

And lastly, a pic of Ross' weekend with Claire! I think Claire loved her daddy-daughter weekend!

 

6/24/16: And lastly, because it happened today and I'm still giddy over it... our new fridge!!! Well, sort of. We live in a rental house and the fridge died... so the Landlord went out right away and bought us this shining beauty. I'm giddy over it!! I didn't know if they'd buy something cheap since it is a rental after all... but seriously, I feel like I won the lottery! 

It's so pretty. I pet it and stare at it every time I walk in the room. 

Yes... my name is Kristin and I get giddy over new appliances.

 

Ross & I are thinking about re-signing our lease for another year and this def. helps sway the decision! We are just so happy here and are not interested in buying a house yet. And I'll tell ya... it's nice to have a break from home renovations :)

Well, that is all! I warned you I had a lot to share!

*Kristin*

October Recap

Can anyone else keep up with all of the photos they take on their cell phones these days?? I'm falling behind. I finally transferred photos to my computer from my phone and couldn't help but want to share an October recap!

Oct. 2nd - we said goodbye to our home in Alabama. The movers came and packed up our house and we made the final trek north. I can't believe this was only a month ago that this happened!!! I feel like we've been living in Cleveland for so much longer!

Oct. 17th - Ross' good friend, Christina, got married! The reception was held at the Rivers Club at the Oxford building in downtown Pittsburgh, which was the same building and floor I used to work on when I worked at GVA Oxford 7 years ago! Talk about a trip down memory lane :) Ross took a pic of me in front of my old office too which I need to find and share!

 Does this dress make me look fat pregnant?!

 

Ross & Jay feeding eachother. Yeah.... I don't ask. I was just told to take the picture...

Here's *almost* the entire gang of Ross' friends! What a good lookin' group :)

All in all, it was a great night! And I spent a majority of it at the cookie table. No shame.

October 25th - Ross & I snuck in a maternity photoshoot before it was too late! I NEVER hire a photographer, so this was a true splurge for me, but I knew I just couldn't do it myself and I really wanted to capture this phase of life before our next chapter begins! (and a remote & a tripod only go so far!) I shared my favorite pics on facebook and am ecstatic with how they came out! The lady only charged $150 for a one-hour session, and I couldn't believe how many pictures she got in such a short amount of time! And how talented she was! Best money I ever did spend :) I've hired her again for a newborn session and some hospital photos. And THEN I promised Ross that I would stop spending all our money on professional photos and start doing them myself, haha.

October 27th - the official closing date on our house in Alabama. All went smoothly, at least I heard. We FedEx'd our portion of papers and didn't hear another word. Another chapter closed!

October 31st - Halloween!...

Ross & I had no special plans for Halloween this year, but Ross' parents decided to come up for the day, so it turned out to a be a fun day of carving pumpkins, handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and Ross trying to scare the trick-or-treaters.

I picked up a small pumpkin for baby girl, since it was the same size as my belly!

Ross always wants the largest pumpkin!

Below - My 'costume' for the year. And Ross' scarecrow costume he wore to scare children. I told him to only scare the older kids, I'm not sure he obeyed :/

Ross had Halloween music playing in the bushes, him and his dad both dressed up to scare kids, and my MIL, Rose, and I sat inside and handed out candy. It was a really nice evening and we had a good turnout of about 75 trick-or-treaters.

November 7th - Mom and dad came up for the day to visit and took us out to lunch. We tried to show them a bit of Cleveland. Mom just wanted to see the water though so we took them to a park up the road from our house and took in the scenery of Lake Erie :)


I have to say, it is SO nice being able to have day-visitors! And I bet they'll be coming around even more once baby girl comes along. I'm really enjoying it (for now!) and love showing everyone our cute neighborhood and our rental house. I am just so happy and content in this home, I'm counting my blessings that the Lord allowed us this opportunity to rent a 'house' and not be stuck in an apartment (again). I knew I would grow restless immediately if it felt like a 'rental' but our house doesn't. I am so content to not even think of our next step. I'm enjoying where we are right at this moment! And Ross is really enjoying the fact that we have a landlord to call on when something breaks, haha. It's a welcomed break from the home renovations we're used to!  And our landlords, by the way, are awesome. They are a married couple in their mid-30's with 2 young kids and simply outgrew this house. The had trouble selling the house this past year and finally decided to rent it out. They have been so easy and kind to work with anytime something comes up! I think they are just as happy to have someone renting it as we are to not be tied down to a mortgage :)

As for baby girl updates, Ross & I are anxiously counting down the remaining 4 weeks. I'm getting pretty uncomfortable these days. I'm having trouble sleeping and breathing when I lay down, heartburn, etc. I think now that we're settled in and our lives are calm again, we're ready to just meet her. And hopefully by the time she comes, we'll have thought of a name!! Ross has a few favorites, but I have none :( Ross may get to decide because I just can't think of anything I really like, haha. We'll see. Hopefully once she's born something will click.

Anyway, it's crazy to me to look back at this month and realize we only settled down in Cleveland a few weeks ago!! I feel like we've been settled for months. I guess my lightning speed unpacking did us some good, ha.

So for these next few weeks, I'll keep trying to enjoy the rest of this pregnancy and enjoy having Ross all to myself. But omigosh.... I'm so excited to meet our baby girl!!! *squeal*

*Kristin*

Secrets, Secrets! Read all about them :)

Well I'm ready to spill the beans, even though I haven't gotten a chance to tell all of my coworkers yet (hence the delay of a FB announcement)...

We are moving to Cleveland, OH!!!

Let me start from the beginning (I know you're thinking, "yay, another rambling post!") ...

This summer has been a whirlwind. Lot's of uncertainties at a time when I thought being pregnant was enough on our agenda, God had other plans. In case you hadn't heard the news, US Steel (where Ross works) is doing very poorly, as a whole. Over the course of the spring, Ross had witnessed round after round of layoffs at his workplace. Eventually, we were not surprised when he was dealt the same card. We saw the writing on the wall but were still hopeful at the time that he would be spared. Since June, Ross has been enjoying his 'summer break' (as we call it :) There was a chance he would be recalled, but that never happened and the operations here (and all USS plants nationwide) have only gotten worse. They just recently announced last week the remaining 1,100 layoffs at his plant here in B'ham. The plant is being completely idled for at least a year. And even when they do start-up again next fall, they will only hire back about 200 employees (compared to the 1,500 that worked there earlier this year) (and that 200 does not include Ross' position). Lot's of good people lost their jobs so the whole scenario is really a shame.

In the meantime, Ross has been job hunting this summer. The big question at first was whether or not we move out of state (since I have a very good job here in B'ham!). Once we learned that I may have the possibility of working from home, the job hunt was wide open. We decided it would be nice to be a bit closer to home, so he started looking for jobs anywhere on the east coast.

He actually got a lot of good traction in his job hunt and I was excited to think of our next phase of life (even as it was bittersweet)! He had gotten such invaluable experience at his job here at USS that I really felt like we did what we came here to do, but now it was time to move on.

As of 2 weeks ago, he accepted a job offer with Alcoa (another Pgh-based company, go figure!) in Cleveland, Ohio! He'll be in the same line of work of Labor Relations. We gave them a start date of 9/14 (which gave us 4 weeks) to give us time to list & sell our house here (another house updated and flipped *sigh*) and get some other kinks sorted out before we move north.

Our house was officially listed this Monday. It's been on the market for 2 days now and already, we've had 2 showings, and 3 more coming up today! It's getting a lot of good attention so we're hopeful it will sell quickly! The updates we've made to the house really show so even though it plain *sucks* that we've renovated another house, and are now selling it, we're hopeful to at least make some money off of it. (I'll blog a house post to show you some 'before' and 'afters' so stay stuned!)

Ross & I are headed up to Cleveland this weekend for a house-hunting trip and to check out the area. We haven't decided yet whether to rent or buy in Cleveland, but hopefully we will have some answers in the next few days. Baby Girl's due date is approaching quickly, so trying to coordinate a timeline for the next 6 months is quite the headache. We'll see what feels best for us and our situation this weekend :)

And lastly, as far as my job is concerned... it's probably one of the biggest blessings I could have never imagined. I just found out yesterday that my boss has agreed to let me work remotely from home until after maternity leave! And then!, for the long-run, I can come back as a contractor and continue working from home. I'll admit, I never wanted to be a stay-at-home, I love coming to the office and interacting with coworkers on a daily basis, but with our lives about to change with Baby Girl, working from home may be such a huge blessing I didn't even know I needed and/or wanted, so I'm thrilled for the opportunity! (And Ross is thrilled I still have a job, haha)

Everything is now falling into place. I've prayed more in my life this summer than ever before and relied on my faith more than ever. Strangely enough, Ross & I have felt more calm in this chaos than I think we should've felt. Yes, there were days we were fearful or questioning 'Why?' but we've not been as stressed as I think someone should be in this case. From one of my favorite church sermons we heard at the beginning of summer (perfect timing!) was to live fully in your Faith so that you can live your life Fearlessly. I've relied on that so heavily this summer and God has truly taken the brunt of the weight and moved mountains for us.

In the end, we feel we've done what we came here to do and now it's time to be closer to our family and friends in Pgh. Ross & I are so excited for our next phase of life and I'm so relieved to finally get to share our secret :)

*Kristin*